160 on death row in Ghana

Amnesty International (AI) has said that there are 160 people known to be on death row in Ghana.

According to AI, although Ghana has not executed anyone on death row since 1993, the death penalty remains in the statute book with some “seven people sentenced to death in 2017”.

This was disclosed by the Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Robert Amoafo Akoto at the launch of the 2017 global death penalty report.

He said Ghana is identified as an abolitionist in practice, meaning “we still have it in our laws, even in 2018 one person has been sentenced to death, the judges are using it in the court and people can go back to it but we don’t execute”.

Meanwhile, on the global scale, while 106 countries abolished the death penalty in 2017, China continued to be the world's top executioner, according to AI.

Mr Akoto indicated that “over thousands” are executed every year even though the country does not release the official figures.

Launching Amnesty International's Death Sentence and Executions 2017 Report, International Board Member of Amnesty International, Dr Vincent Adzahile-Mensah called on President Akufo-Addo and all well-meaning Ghanaians to support the call for abolishment of the death penalty.